Finn McCool's owner killed in Hilltown home invasion

HILLTOWN — Authorities discovered a deceased male resident — identified as 48-year-old Joseph Canazaro — in a home on the 300 block of Swartley Road in Hilltown Township the morning of Jan. 18 after an armed home invasion, according to Chris Engelhart, chief of the township’s police department. Canazaro was one of the owners of Finn McCool’s Tavern in Ambler.

Engelhart said two survivors — a woman and Canazaro’s 12-year-old son who had been bound by the invaders — fled the home and called authorities from a neighbor’s home.

“The investigation is very fluid,” he said last Friday afternoon standing near the bottom of the home’s long driveway. “We’re following several leads.”

Engelhardt said Canazaro and the woman — his girlfriend — did not own the home, but one of her two children who lives at the home had left for school before the invasion. Both children and the woman were later questioned by detectives at the Hilltown police headquarters.

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The two suspected invaders were both wearing masks and carrying handguns and fled the scene in a black Lincoln pickup truck owned by one of the residents, according to the chief. The truck was found shortly before 4 p.m. Jan. 18 in a shopping center parking lot on Route 309 in Quakertown, according to Matthew Weintraub, the chief of prosecution for the Bucks County District Attorney’s office. Authorities are examining the truck and a nearby trash container for clues, according to Engelhart.

He said the subjects should be considered armed and dangerous and that additional weapons may have been taken from the home.

Authorities were notified of the incident around 10 a.m., according to Engelhart, but police were still investigating the area surrounding the home that evening to determine how the two arrived. A police K-9 officer from the Quakertown Police Department searched the home’s yard and a grassy field across Swartley “on the off chance they were hiding out” in the immediate area before the home invasion, Engelhart said.

He said police have not determined how the suspects — described as a Hispanic male 5 feet, 9 inches tall and a “smaller Asian male” wearing a black jacket and cargo pants — got to the house.

“Figuring out how they came to pick this location,” is part of the investigation, Engelhart said.

The two men were inside the home, on multiple floors, for several hours, but it’s still unknown for how long, according to police.

The chief confirmed that Canazaro’s body was discovered in a different part of the house than where the three people “were originally accosted.” Weintraub later said his body was discovered in the garage of the home, while the woman and Canazaro’s son were tied up in the basement.

The prosecutor confirmed that the invaders accessed the home through a first-floor window.

Authorities did not see any evidence of a particular struggle, according to Engelhart.

He said the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted township and Bucks County authorities in the investigation, since police suspected that weapons were taken from the home.

“It’s not unusual for them to get involved in cases like this,” Engelhart said.

Police from several area departments, Bucks County detectives, and federal investigators could be seen entering and exiting the house as night fell last Friday.

Canazaro may have been targeted, law enforcement officials said earlier this week.

The incident was not random, according to Engelhart.

The results of an autopsy conducted Saturday were not released. David Heckler, the Bucks County district attorney, decided to withhold the information for “investigative reasons,” according to The Associated Press.

Canazaro’s financial history and ownership stake in Finn McCool’s Tavern in Ambler will likely be part of law enforcement’s investigation, Weintraub said.

The victim filed for bankruptcy in 2008 with approximately $10 million in debt.

“Both those issues are fair game,” said Weintraub, who will be handling the home invasion case. “We plan to exhaust all avenues of this investigation.”

It seemed Finn McCool’s was finally seeing smoother sailing, after the bar was forced to close when a piece of the building’s wall collapsed into South Spring Garden Street last May. Reconstruction of the wall finished last fall, the street was reopened and job advertisements at Finn McCool’s were posted on its Facebook page, with interviews scheduled for Jan. 21 and 23.

On Jan. 18, the tavern posted, “Sorry to say, Finn McCool will have to postpone all hiring at this time. We will be back soon with more information.” An outpouring of support and messages from community members then filled the page. It later posted, “Thank you to all for your thoughts and prayers.”